1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ventilation systems for computer equipment.
2. Background Art
Computer systems require cooling to maintain maximum performance and system reliability. Servers are one example of a computer system that requires a cooling system to cool disk drives, circuit board mounted components, power supplies, and the like. Disk drives have servo motors for rapidly spinning data disks that are scanned by moving heads. Drive motors and other movable components are heated in the course of normal operation of the disk drive. Microcircuit chips, memory devices, resistors and other components mounted on circuit boards also develop heat during normal operation.
Build-up of heat in microcircuit chips reduces the capacity and otherwise limits performance of the computer system. Substantial energy is required to operate disk drives and their associated circuit boards. Energy is lost to heat and dissipation of heat also requires energy that adds to the cost of operation of the computer system.
A server is one example of such a computer system that requires an efficient and effective cooling system. Some server systems have disk drives that are located in a front section of a cabinet. Fans, circuit boards and power supplies are assembled in a back section of the server. Disk drives may be cooled by air flowing from the front of the server to the back of the server. Air flowing from the front is heated by disk drives which reduces the cooling capacity of the air that is available to cool components in the back section of the server. In addition, closely spaced disk drives impede air flow and further reduce available air flow for cooling the circuit boards and power supplies of the server system.
The present invention is directed to solving the above problems as summarized below.